NAMIBIA
FLY-IN SAFARIS
BEST OF NAMIBIA WING SAFARI / SKELETON COAST FLY-IN SAFARI
BEST OF NAMIBIA WING SAFARI
Surrounded by towering red sand dunes on three sides, huge dead camel thorn trees are a stark reminder of an earlier era when plenty of water allowed them to grow large and strong. The 'Best of Namibia Wing Safari' (see trip report) is operated every Sunday and Thursday from Eros Airport, Windhoek. Guests on this fly-in safari experience the highlights of Namibia: Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert; the Skeleton Coast; Swakopmund, Damaraland and Etosha. The aircraft and pilot stay with the group throughout so there is continuity and flexibility. All meals, park fees and activities are included. Group size is normally four to six guests, maximum eight.
Day 1: Sunday - Namib Desert (Sossusvlei)
Depart Eros Airport (Windhoek) this morning by light aircraft to Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp for two nights. It is an hour's flight down to Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp. Guests check into the camp, built near the top of a mountain overlooking vast open plains.
Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp is situated 20 kilometres from Sesriem, the entrance to Sossusvlei, one of the most remarkable sites of the Namib-Naukluft Park and the Namib Desert. Huge towering dunes - said to be the highest in the world, rise dramatically over 300 meters (1000 feet) above the surrounding plains. The changing colors and the spectacle of lonely oryx silhouetted against the red dunes is one which visitors and photographers from around the world, come to savor and capture on film.
The camp is situated on a 7 000 hectare property with wonderful desert scenery and offers close access to Sossusvlei but also offers privacy and exclusivity on private land. The property harbors vast desert plains and rugged mountains with views onto the dunes in the distance.
The camp has been built near the top of a mountain, using natural materials of rock, timber and thatch and provides cool refuge from the desert. We only have ten guest rooms, ensuring personal service and attention, while at the same time ensuring that the wonderful peaceful atmosphere of the desert is not intruded upon.
Each of the ten bungalows is built into the side of the mountain. The rooms are superbly appointed and have charm and style that offers comfort and atmosphere, while blending into the environment. The en-suite bathrooms also have panoramic views overlooking the plains below and have both hot and cold running water, showers and flush loos. The main living area is under thatch with a pool.
Food here is wholesome and nourishing. We sprinkle the menus with local specialties and favorites as well. One of our favorites is "melktert", a local pudding, using the old traditional recipe of Norma Grobler, our "landlady" on the reserve.
Activities centre on early morning excursions in 4x4 vehicles to the magnificent Sossusvlei dunes and "vlei" itself at the end of the Tsauchab River - a dry river bed that only flows in years of exceptional rainfall. Wonderful desert breakfasts are served under the spreading camel-thorn acacias before returning to camp in the midday via the nearby Sesriem Canyon. Afternoon activities are enjoyed on the property, taking in the desert scenery and its unique fauna and flora.
This is not a game rich area due to the harsh environment. However, what game we see is interesting and enhanced by the contrast between magnificent animals like springbok, gemsbok (oryx) and ostrich which survive and eke out an existence in these arid conditions.
Day 3: Tuesday - Damaraland Camp
We fly by aircraft over the dunes of the Namib and over Sossusvlei itself for an alternative view from the air and then due westwards to Meob Bay on the Skeleton Coast. From here on up the coast, we enjoy spectacular desert and Skeleton Coast scenery, where the dunes and the desert meet the Atlantic Ocean. We fly up the coast over the site of the Eduard Bolen shipwreck, past Conception Bay and the wreck site of the Shaunee, over Sandwich Harbour and its famous lagoon, past the flamingoes of Walvis Bay and up to Swakopmund. Here we are met and transferred into town for a tour of the town and a delicious crayfish lunch (included in the cost). In the afternoon we depart from Swakopmund for a scenic flight further up the Skeleton Coast, past the Cape Cross Seal Colony before we turn east and fly up the Huab River to Damaraland Camp for two nights.
Damaraland Camp is situated on the north face of the Huab River valley, looking south onto the imposing Brandberg Mountains. Located well away from the track leading to and from the Skeleton Coast to the interior of Damaraland, this comfortable and friendly camp offers walks and drives in some of the best wilderness areas in Namibia. Damaraland Camp is the closest camp to the rock engravings at Twyfelfontein and is situated where the rare desert elephant roams, alongside gemsbok, springbok, ostrich and other hardy desert animals. Rare succulent plants survive in this harsh countryside and our guides are able to make the area and its wildlife come alive. Accommodation is for a maximum of 16 guests in comfortable tented rooms, with rustic but functional en-suite facilities. Activities throughout the area are in 4WD vehicles and on foot.
Highlights of the stay at Damaraland Camp are nature excursions into the rocky desert in search of the rare and endangered desert elephant and rhino. We are in an area where the chances of encountering the elephants is very high. Damaraland is one of the few really good tented camps in the country and is currently going through an upgrade which will make it on a par with the best tented camps on the sub-continent. All tents have en-suite bathrooms with flush loos, even though we are in an area with water shortages.
Namibia Ongava Tented Camp Day 5: Thursday - Etosha (Ongava Game Lodge)
Fly by light aircraft from Damaraland to Ongava Lodge for two nights. Highlights are the game drives into Etosha and the night drives, walks and hides on the private reserve.
Ongava Game Lodge is situated on the south western boundary of Etosha National Park in privately owned Ongava Game Reserve, covering an area of some 30 000 hectares. In the midst of this reserve stands Ongava Lodge, one of southern Africa's best appointed game lodges. Accommodation comprises 10 air-conditioned chalets each with en-suite activities. All meals are taken in the main dining area with a view over a water hole. Activities include game drives in open-sided 4 X 4 vehicles into the Okaukuejo area of Etosha where lion, elephant, cheetah, gemsbok, springbok and hartebeest are to be seen at many of the water holes in the park. In addition, game drives, night drives and walks are enjoyed on the private reserve. Ongava has resident white rhino, and Etosha has black rhino, so guests staying at Ongava have the opportunity to see both species of rhino.
For those guests just wishing to relax at the lodge there have been excellent sightings of large herds of eland, with a good variety of other species including lion and leopard at the waterhole in front of the lodge.
Day 7: Saturday - Windhoek
On this day, charter flight back to Windhoek (Eros Airport) where the safari ends.
The 2000 price for the BONWS is $2,725 p.p. sharing ($750 single supplement). The safari departs every Thursday and Sunday from Windhoek.
Namibia's desolate Skeleton Coast is an area of spectacular landscapes, diverse and ever-changing geological formations, with shipwrecks scattered along the coasts and desert-adapted animals showing up in the most unlikely places. It is a place where one retreats from practically everything associated with 'civilization', to experience and enjoy the solitude and beauty of this most unforgiving stretch of coastline.
Although a visit to the Skeleton Coast Park concession area is a 'total experience', its geology is arguably its single most striking feature. The Skeleton Coast landscape as it is today seems much the same as it might have been ten million years ago; geological formations range from mica schists, deposited between 1,000 and 700 million years ago, to dunes of windblown sand from the Jurassic period, hardened to form conspicuous sandstone formations. Other notable geological formations include outcrops of granitic rock which have become pitted and eroded to the point where their hollow, ghost-like features have earned them the sobriquet of 'petrified ghosts' of the Skeleton Coast. Various ancient lava formations, craters, boulders, glacial debris, gravel and sand, as well as several types of dunes, contribute to this rich mosaic of landscapes.
Some specific attractions are the clay 'Temples' or 'Castles' of the Hoarusib Canyon, remnants of ancient river silt deposits and the beaches, particularly the pebble beaches where samples of just about every single stone that occurs on the Skeleton Coast, have concentrated. Other highlights are the seal colony at Cape Frio and the roaring dunes (large barchan dunes which make a rumbling sound when sand slides down the slipface).
The desert-adapted flora is rich and fascinating, two notable examples being the various lichens and the Welwitschia plants. The lichens, also known as 'desert moss', are normally hard and brittle, coming to life when the coastal fog pushes inland and drenches them with moisture. The enigmatic Welwitschia plant produces only two leaves throughout its lifetime which may span to 2,000 years or more, the age of average specimens being 500 to 600 years.
There are several rivers which drain westwards across the Skeleton Coast Park, and to various degrees they act as 'linear oases', bringing water - and hence life - into what would otherwise be a barren wasteland. Much of the wildlife associated with the Skeleton Coast, such as the desert-adapted elephant, gemsbok, springbok, other mammals and birds, reptiles and insects are dependent upon the river courses.
ITINERARIES - WILDERNESS SAFARIS SKELETON COAST FLY-IN:
Day 1: Depart WDH at about 11am and head for the Skeleton Coast Park. We fly low-level up the coastline and the guests will get a great bird's eye view of the park before we explore it on the ground. We fly over sand dunes, canyons, seals, sites of old shipwrecks, open plains etc. before we land at our remote strip in the private concession area of the Skeleton Coast National Park. Guests settle into camp and then head out on their first excursion into the desert where we enjoy a desert sunset before heading back to camp.
Day 2 and 3 (and 4): Each day is different. We take our Land Rovers and head for different parts of the concession for different experiences. We will travel over sand dunes and experience the roaring of the dunes; down canyons; over rocky terrain - and across sandy flats - and follow the coastline of this wonderful part of the Skeleton Coast National Park. We visit some of the sites of the shipwrecks and get a feel for what the survivors would have experienced when they landed on this desolate coast line. Each day and each moment of each day takes guests into different and varying scenery. The Namib is host to hardy and interesting fauna and flora - Lithops, the flowering "stones"; Welwitschias; enormous lichen covered plains; desert elephant, ostrich, Cape fur seals, gemsbok, springbok and brown hyena are some of the areas specials.
Day 4 (or 5):
We head back to Windhoek after a last morning's drive through the region.4-DAY SKELETON COAST FLY-IN SAFARI:
This trip departs from Windhoek every Wednesday from 1st April 2000. It arrives back in Windhoek on a Saturday.
The cost for the 4 day safari WDH to WDH is US$2,370 per person and
includes the Skeleton Coast park fee. Single room supplement is US$365.Minimum of 2 passengers for the trip to run.
5-DAY SKELETON COAST FLY-IN SAFARI:
This departs from Windhoek every Saturday from 1st April 2000 and arrives back in Windhoek every Wednesday.
The costs for the 5 day safari WDH to WDH is US$2,495 per person and
includes the Skeleton Coast park fee. Single room supplement is US$485.Minimum of 2 passengers for the trip to run.
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